One step back, two steps forward

Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, October 11, 2017

<p class="p1">Maybe it was LSU’s final, parting jab at Florida. But when the Tigers departed Gainesville Saturday, they flew straight over Hurricane Nate to get home.</p><p class="p1">See. Not that big of a deal. Just a little wind and scattered showers. A couple of bumps in the air.</p><p class="p1">When they landed in Baton Rouge, that 17-16 victory over the Gators had given them a whole new and brighter outlook on the season.</p><p class="p1">So there’s that.</p><p class="p1">Head coach Ed Orgeron didn’t need to inform anybody that he saw his team come together on the road.</p><p class="p1">It was blatantly obvious that it was a different bunch.</p><p class="p1">The new energy on the LSU sideline was noticeable from afar. </p><p class="p1">There was no question that Orgeron had learned his lesson, that he wasn’t meddling with Matt Canada’s offense this day.</p><p class="p1">Mainly, there was a chemistry with the Tigers not detected in the previous five games and finally exposed by Mississippi State and Troy.</p><p class="p1">It was a tough, gritty team with something of an identity materializes before your eyes, seemingly out of nowhere.</p><p class="p1">Sometimes that’s the trickiest part of coaching.</p><p class="p1">So give Orgeron some credit.</p><p class="p1">It occurs to me that it probably doesn’t happen if LSU — as so often happens — had somehow muddled around and still scuffed out an undeserved victory over Troy.</p><p class="p1">Without that wake-up call, The Swamp at Florida might well have devoured them.</p><p class="p1">But the Tigers — coaches and staff alike — were snapped out of denial. They were forced to take a long, hard look in the mirror, and nobody liked what they saw.</p><p class="p1">Give them credit for the way they responded.</p><p class="p1">They didn’t pout. They did something about it.</p><p class="p1">Orgeron will never completely live down that Troy embarrassment. But if that’s what it took to get his attention and to get everybody on the same page, then maybe it was all for the best.</p><p class="p1">If you had to have a split of the Troy-Florida fortnight, the way it played out was probably the best-case scenario for the Tigers.</p><p class="p1">Beating Troy, aside from being criminal, wouldn’t have proved anything.</p><p class="p1">Beating Florida did. Kind of.</p><p class="p1">One problem: the charter flight home also landed with the Tigers having the same personnel holes and limitations they left with, problems that aren’t going to get much better this season.</p><p class="p1">The SEC doesn’t have a waiver wire.</p><p class="p1">You can’t suddenly trade for Adrian Peterson.</p><p class="p1">As chippy as they can get in each other’s company, LSU and Florida are probably a lot more alike right now than they’d care to admit.</p><p class="p1">Both have proud traditions and some talent, but also a lot of holes and flaws.</p><p class="p1">Neither is a great team on the national scene.</p><p class="p1">It wasn’t always pretty, but Saturday the Tigers probably played about as well as they could have — and beat an OK team by one point by the gift of a missed extra point.</p><p class="p1">The Xs and Os and even the jet sweeps don’t explain it — they just played their tails off.</p><p class="p1">That’s the only way they’re going to win anything this year.</p><p class="p1">At least they know the recipe.</p><p class="p1">Canada will continue trying to cobble some offense together with some sleights of hand that allows for three true freshmen in the offensive line, as they were forced into last week.</p><p class="p1">It’s possible they could have do it again this week against a better Auburn team.</p><p class="p1">Maybe they get some injured linemen back this week, maybe not. But, either way, they’re not going to line up and run over anybody.</p><p class="p1">Oh, quarterback Danny Etling can play better. Certainly he can throw better than the several open receivers he missed last week.</p><p class="p1">But he might have been the poster child for the win at Florida.</p><p class="p1">He was like a wily, veteran pitcher without his best stuff, somehow gutting out a complete-game victory.</p><p class="p1">He made up for the errant throws with leadership and resolve, holding a patched-up offense together for just enough to win.</p><p class="p1">I’m not a sure a freshman, even a more naturally gifted one like Myles Brennan, could have pulled that off.</p><p class="p1">It didn’t appear the Tigers ever glanced toward the bullpen.</p><p class="p1">But it showed what LSU is capable of when it plays with focus and energy for a full 60 minutes.</p><p class="p1">If LSU plays as hard as it did in Gainesville, the Tigers should at least be in every game, maybe Alabama.</p><p class="p1">OK, probably not the Tide. Maybe not Auburn this week either.</p><p class="p1">But the rest of the schedule suddenly looks doable.</p>